Rached Ghannouchi: Ink-Stained Finger and Polling Station

rached ghannouchi: REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi By 11 30 a.m., turnout across the country was only 6.85%, the electoral commission said, compared to 7.3% at the same stage of last month's first-round presidential election, in which only 45% of registered voters cast ballots, according to The Independent. The failure of repeated coalition governments that grouped the old secular elite and the long-banned moderate Islamist Ennahda party to address a weak economy and declining public services has dismayed many Tunisians. Rached Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennahda party, shows his ink-stained finger as he poses with his daughter after casting his ballot at a polling station during the parliamentary elections in Tunis. After the revolution, we were all optimistic and our hopes were high. Unemployment, 15% nationally and 30% in some cities, is higher than it was under the former autocrat, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who died last month in exile in Saudi Arabia. But hope has been greatly diminished now as a result of the disastrous performance of the rulers and the former parliament, said Basma Zoghbi, a worker for Tunis municipality. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.